Cliff(y) Goes Dining

Ravioli with caciotta cheese inside! Alright, this is the last review of 2012! I dined there neither on Christmas Eve nor today though. For your information, Capri is the name of an enchanting island belonging to Italy on the south side of the Gulf of Naples. Capri Trattoria & Pizzeria is one of the restaurants my hug-Italian-food friend recommended. As I sat down on the reserved seating, I was greeted by the amiable owner, Mr. Luca.

Yummy banana walnut gelato! I'm so sorry I forgot to wish everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS! XD I'm finally done with the slides for the coming presentation with regard to my Final Year Project. Well, Lemon Tree Bistro, an eatery which I suppose is under the same management as the vegetarian Honzen Café , is located a few steps away from the latter, opposite of the National Library building. I skipped appetisers since it seemed that there weren't any unique items for me to try out.

Feast for the eyes: dragon fruit fried rice! UPDATE (29/06/2014):  The eatery has moved to 41 Sam Leong Road. I apologise for being tardy in updating my blog. I've been caught up with laboratory work lately, and I barely have the time to relax. Today's review is on another vegetarian eatery located just opposite of the Bugis Junction taxi stand. I believe Honzen Café and Lemon Tree Bistro , judging from the similar decor of the two eateries.

"Gourmet the everyday!" UPDATE (14/01/2018):  The eatery has closed down. Pizza Capers was founded in 1996 in Brisbane, Australia by two handsome men. Okay, at least that's what's written on the wall in the restaurant haha... Singapore happens to be the first target of their international expansion, if I'm not mistaken. Well, it was the place where I had a folded pizza, a.k.a. calzone, for dessert for the first time in my life!

Prawns with pumpkin cream sauce! The restaurant was formerly known as Long Jiang Restaurant which used to be located inside the now defunct Crown Prince Hotel, the hotel I stayed in when I first visited Singapore as a tourist. It has since reopened at Commonwealth, with the same chef bringing back his signature dishes, along with modern fusion dishes.

Melt-in-the-mouth salmon belly! UPDATE (27/12/2019):  The restaurant has closed down. Kuru kuru means round and round in English, which one will soon understand the meaning behind the name when one notices that they use daruma dolls (Japanese roly-poly toys which will go round and round when tilted to one side to eventually attain an upright position) as their logo. Let's see if this particular eatery with optimism, persistence and strong determination in running its business managed to make me satisfied.

Have you tried vegetarian 'pho'  before? UPDATE (04/03/2016):  The eatery has moved to 229 Joo Chiat Road. Loving Hut is one of the largest, fastest growing families of vegan restaurants in the world, having established numerous branches over more than 20 countries from the East to the West. There are currently two branches in Singapore. I remember seeing one branch in town in HK when I was on a leisurely bus ride (ahh, those days...).

Fish Amok is gonna make your taste buds run amok in a good way! UPDATE (19/03/2017):  The restaurant has closed down. Being the pioneer in offering Cambodian cuisine in Singapore, Khmer Delight was opened in December 2009 by a Cambodian lady and her Singaporean husband. Indeed, it was my very first time with Cambodian food, and I was pretty suprised to find two dishes bearing a slight resemblance Indonesian dishes in terms of taste.

Has anyone tried pistachio crème brûlée before? UPDATE (04/10/2018):  The eatery has closed down. Being Singapore's first Halal French bistro, Le Bistro Parisien is located not far away from Bugis MRT station. Serving classic French fare, the bistro doesn't have an extensive menu, but perhaps enough to make one ponder what to have. Don't expect fine dining; the server told me that the dishes might not appear according to the order they were supposed to be. One thing for sure, she was friendly.

Gotta love their Mojo potatoes! UPDATE (25/04/2017):  The restaurant has closed down. The very first time I saw Shakey's Pizza (well, I couldn't exactly remember if I've ever seen it in its original country) was when I went to Manila in early April this year. From its humble beginnings as a pizza parlor from a remodeled grocery store somewhere in California, Shakey's Pizza has expended and embarked on a global expansion since 1968. It has recently reopened in Singapore in July this year.

Crispy eggplants to die for! UPDATE (26/02/2017):  The stall has closed down. Having heard relatively good reviews about this particular stall in a coffee shop setting, I went down on one Friday night to see what it's capable of, hoping that I'll leave with a satisfied tummy. Once featured in the TV, this stall is within walking distance from Lavender MRT station.

Eggs Benedict without Hollandaise sauce? :O UPDATE (23/04/2017):  The eatery has closed down. Has anyone noticed that there's a street called HongKong Street in Singapore? I was walking around Clarke Quay area when I stumbled upon the street, which immediately brought back all the memories of the exchange programme. Since I was already there, I thought I ought to grab something to eat for lunch. As I saw this particular bistro on the 1st floor of Fragrance Hotel which serves all-day brunch menu, I went in.

How adventurous are you when it comes to 'pho'? UPDATE (27/11/2018):  The restaurant has closed down. I rarely eat Vietnamese food throughout my 20+ years of life. I guess I can count with my fingers the number of times I've indulged in Vietnamese cuisine, and the fact that I've never been to Vietnam before makes me kinda oblivious to its charm and variety. Upon a recommendation from a friend, I managed to discover a bit more by visiting Pho Hoa in Suntec City Mall.

Unique green curry paste fried rice? UPDATE (26/04/2014):  The branch at Suntec City Mall has closed down. Check out the other branches from their website. Another restaurant managed by the Creative Eateries group, Siam Kitchen offers a plethora of traditional and modern Thai cuisine for diners.  Pika's advice:  Some of the branches offer buffet priced at  S$20.90  per person. Do check it out!

Juicy chicken with creamy cheddar sauce! The Loft Cuisine is a small eatery located in the East Coast area of Singapore which offers European cuisine. I happened to be around for a quick dinner since I wasn't particularly hungry. For the two main courses shown in this review, you can choose two side dishes to go with each plate. Pika's advice: The main attraction of the eatery is perhaps the Dessert Buffet priced at S$25.00 per person. Those with sweet teeth may want to give it a try!

(Dancing in the) Moonlight Hor Fun! :P Lu Gang Xiao Zhen is managed by The Asian Kitchen group, offering various Taiwanese dishes for passersby who may be allured by the tantalising aroma coming out from the restaurant. There are currently two branches: one in ION Orchard, and another in Nex.

Sichuan style frog meat! UPDATE (12/01/2015):  The restaurant has closed down. Xiao La Jiao is a restaurant managed by the Creative Eateries group, specialising in spicy dishes from the Sichuan province in mainland China. I dropped by there when I first visited 112 Katong. All of the food items I ordered the other day, including the dessert, are the chef's selections.

Seriously, garlic gelato!? Originated in South Korea in 2001, Mad for Garlic offers innovative garlic-based Italian cuisine. There are currently two branches here in Singapore. Being a garlic lover, I was full of excitement when I first stepped into the restaurant located in The Foundry, Clarke Quay. 

Mock prawns at their best! Vegetarian food isn't without its charm. At Nature's Vegetarian Delight located on the 4th floor of Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre, you'll be spoilt for choice with international vegetarian cuisine drawn from various parts of the world. Anyway, can you guess what's in the picture below without looking at the name?

Choose your sauce: tangy lemon, mild peri, very peri or supa peri? UPDATE (14/03/2016):  The restaurant has closed down. Frankly speaking, I'd been wanting to try Barcelos out for a long time. I finally had the chance last week. Peri peri chicken has been gaining popularity in the recent years, and I just feel the need to get myself into it haha... Let's see if Barcelos managed to make satisfied.

When macaroni met seafood, cheese and cream sauce... UPDATE (29/11/2017): The chain doesn't exist anymore in Singapore. It'd been ages since I dined at The Café Cartel the last time, which was perhaps sometime during my JC 1 days. When I was walking around in Plaza Singapura with a friend, I suddenly thought, "Hmm, the restaurant used to serve nice macaroni." Since I now own a food blog, it was a good reason for me to dine there once again, no? :P

Big cherry tomatoes and small cheese balls on sticks! UPDATE (17/06/2014):  The eatery has closed down. Has anyone been to the iFly building in Sentosa? I once stepped my feet into, not to try the indoor skydiving though, but to go to the 5th floor where Skyloft Rooftop Bar & Restaurant runs a business. I went there for a Saturday brunch which menu is available daily from 11.00am to 6.00pm.

Sweet pork ribs; savoury wedges with curry mayo! From the name itself, you may guess that PoTeaTo is a place where people chill by drinking tea and eating spud-based finger food. Well, you're right, but my purpose of visiting the eatery the other day was to have my dinner. It's a relatively new eatery in Tiong Bahru, and I'd consider it as a hidden gem.

Not only the Westerners, I was also delighted by the spring rolls! It was time to say goodbye; well, not exactly. The farewell party was held before the final exam period, which was indeed the last chance for everyone to gather as a group to share each other's stories and enjoy the company of one another.

Airy mousse topped with cereal! Even though I didn't have lunch and dinner very often in Canteen II, I frequently dropped by there during tea time. One of the reason was the fact that the canteen was less crowded, but more importantly, I was taken in by the visually appealing cakes in the coffee corner.

Succulent steamed catfish in black bean sauce! I forgot to ask this particular question in the previous post. Does anyone know why Canteen II is named so? Was it really the 2nd canteen built in HKUST? Anyway, I've noticed that the food menu there is changed less frequently, which was the reason why I didn't dine there very often.

HK style breakfast set before flying off... :/ Although there are more food places that one can find in HKUST, Canteen II shall be the last one I'm going to write. Frankly speaking, the two breakfast sets shown below were those my friend and I ate before we left for the airport to return to the little red dot.

Huge teppan pig trotter! Gold Rice Bowl is a caterer in HKUST which doesn't offer breakfast and tea time items. What amazed me was the fact that the portion of the food served was always huge. One serving was enough for me to last for the rest of the day without the need to eat supper. Well, when one takes a glimpse at the tray return station, one will see that there are, more often than not, lots of leftovers. Again, since it's not possible for me to review everything, I've selected a total of twelve dishes to be featured in this review.

Huge and juicy soya chicken leg! While I didn't go for tea time every single day during the exchange programme, I never failed to have one every Tuesday and Thursday after the COMP3311 (Database Management Systems) lecture which ended at 2.50pm. All the tea sets in this review came with a choice of coffee, tea, soft drink or orange juice.

Fried vermicelli Singapore style! Meal time was something that I'd always look forward to during the exchange programme (well, even now...). With dishes rotated on a daily basis, I was spoilt for choice every single day. Alright, I guess it's kinda impossible for me to show all the stuff I tried, so I've picked 10 dishes to write this review.

NZ Hoki fish fillet, anyone? Asia Pacific Catering, which runs a group of restaurants called Café de Coral, also runs a business in HKUST. I'll review a few breakfast items jere. Well, to be honest, there wasn't anything to rave about the food served for breakfast, but rest assured, the main menu offers a wide range of mouth-watering food. So yeah, I'm looking forward to write the next review while reminiscing on those days!  

Mouth-watering Country Burger! The coffee shop is located on the 1st floor of the Academic Concourse in HKUST. I've never had a full meal there, but I did try a few of the tea sets offered. I'm going to feature five of them today: Sets A , D , E , I and K . Set A is the only set that includes a cup of soft drink. The rest comes with either coffee or tea (a selection of Dilmah tea is available, including Earl Grey, chamomile and apple, but to name a few).

Visually appealing tea time set for two! UPDATE (08/06/2020):  The vendor no longer operates at the canteen. Having been under the British colony for approximately 155 years (my history isn't failing me, I hope), HK has developed into a city-state where tea time is part and parcel of daily life. Tea time has always been an important moment at home everyday (mom being the most faithful advocate). It's only in Singapore where I usually don't even have the time, or the luxury, to have something in between lunch and dinner.

Bacardi pork!? Alcoholic stuff? UPDATE (08/06/2020):  The vendor no longer operates at the canteen. We've finally reached the stage where we're going to introduce you to the canteen food in HKUST. Let's start with Milano Fresh, a caterer specialising in Western, especially Italian, cuisine. While I didn't eat there very often, I did manage to try a few varieties of food offered. In each and every canteen, some of the dishes are rotated on a daily basis.

Who can resist the alluring aroma of the cuttlefish? UPDATE (03/07/2016):  The stall has closed down. Ah, the Avenue of Stars... It's the place for you (or rather, for me) to have fun racing with your friends to find the names of celebrities of the HK film industry (Andy Lau being my mom's favourite) during the day and to enjoy the night breeze, as well as the glorious HK skyline after nightfall.

Happy t(h)ree friends: mango, coconut and glutinous rice! Who doesn't love desserts? Please raise your hand (or rather, leave a comment) if you don't haha... Apparently the most popular establishment with many branches spread throughout HK, Hui Lau Shan is known for its healthy dessert concoctions. "I'd love to try as many of their creations as possible!", I thought, but in the end, I only tried two of them throughout the entire duration of the exchange programme.  

One Michelin Star - Flavourful silky smooth beancurd! Taking a walk in Sai Kung Town, once a fishing village which has transformed into a paradise for food lovers, with the gentle breeze of wind caressing my back was one of the most memorable experiences during the exchange programme. Knowing that there's a restaurant called Loaf On, which is the first restaurant in Sai Kung to be recognised by Michelin, I just had to give it a try.

Pizza, how cheesy? :P When I was walking around in Wan Chai, I happened to find this quiet eatery. "Hmm, Cheese Pizza, sounds nice, no?", I thought. I loves pizzas which are rich in cheese, so I just had to try one of their creations, especially since I hadn't eaten lunch.

Sensational champagne truffle and sea salt caramel truffle mooncakes! First of all, we would like to wish our readers a happy Mid-Autumn Festival! With a huge array of mooncakes to choose from, I'm sure everyone is spoilt for choice. However, for an indecisive person like me, the headache is a yearly affair. In the end, I decided to order from Grand Hyatt to satisfy my craving for snowskin mooncakes.

"S: Taste, M: Enjoy, L: Share" UPDATE (23/11/2017):  The restaurant has closed down. We're back to HKG, and this will be the last stretch of reviews of the food establishments we visited during the exchange period. Again, we found ourselves back in Times Square in Causeway Bay (previous reviews include Ganpachi Ramen and Tony Roma's ). SML stands for Small, Medium, Large, offering dishes from various parts of the world in three different sizes to suit everyone's appetite.

A taste of sweet kimchi fried rice! We've come to the last part of the Jeju Island trip. It was time to go home (read: HKUST), but before that, a simple lunch before the flight would be great, I thought. Not surprisingly, Jeju International Airport is one of the busiest airports in South Korea. Oh, did you know that it was originally established in 1942 as a military facility, and then re-opened in 1968 as an international airport?

Highly nutritious abalone porridge! After a fun, but tiring trip to the Manjanggul Cave, one of the world's finest lava tunnels, as well as the Seongsan Ilchulbong on the eastern end of Jeju Island, it was high time for dinner (read: around 9.00pm). At that time, I was already worried that I wouldn't have the chance to taste jeonbukjuk ( 전복죽 ), a variety of Korean porridge made with white rice and abalone.  

Healthy goodness of young chicken and ginseng! It was a cold, windy day when, after completing the journey to the last of the three famous waterfalls of the island, as well as the free entry to the Seobok Exhibition Hall we found along the way, I was craving for a nice samgyetang (삼계탕), a Korean variety of ginseng chicken soup, to warm the soul.

The biggest bibimbap I've ever encountered! Let's continue with our Jeju Island trip! I spent almost the whole day to trek at Hallasan, a shield volcano which happens to be the highest mountain in South Korea. With Pikachu and Melon sleeping in my bag, too exhausted to look around for a nice restaurant, I decided to have a quick dinner at the Food Hall in E-Mart after shopping for snacks and stuff.  

Mouth-watering five-layered pork belly! Welcome to Jeju Island! After a tiring trip on the southern part of the island, looking for the Jusangjeolli Cliff, two of the three most famous waterfalls of the island, as well as the Teddy Bear Museum, I was completely exhausted, longing for a nice dinner.

Dim sum delight onboard! I hadn't planned for a trip to Jeju Island during the exchange programme until I saw a promotion on Facebook in early May which stated that KA had just launched a new direct route from HKG to CJU, which, to date, is the longest available flight to reach Jeju Island with a duration of 3 hours and 15 minutes. First, I'd never been to Jeju Island before, and second, I'd never flown with KA before, so there was no reason not to visit one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature! :D

Sweet Singapore Sling onboard! I've been flying with SQ for the past 7 years or so, and no doubt, it's still one of my most favourite airlines to date. It was the medium-haul flight to HK (brunch menu) which marked the start of my journey as an exchange student that I'm going to share with you today, as well as the short-haul flight to Jakarta (breakfast menu) which ended it all to showcase the catering in Singapore.

Gobble up the deviled chicken steak! To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what does UC stands for, but I suppose it's University Centre. It's a comfy eatery serving mostly Western dishes. Next to the eatery is the Uni-Bar which offers snacks and alcoholic drinks. Anyway, the food featured in this review will be the lunch sets.

Memorable coffee and milk pudding! 4 June 2012: It was the last evening spent in HK during the exchange programme. Before I went home, I'd already promised to myself that I had to dine at the posh Chinese Restaurant in HKUST which features mostly Northern and Southern Chinese cuisine at affordable prices. In fact, the restaurant is the place where local professors usually invite visiting professors, scholars, etc. to dine and chit-chat.

One Michelin Star: wonderful har gow! Today's review is gonna be a long one. The rival of another 2012 One Michelin Star dim sum eatery which I've reviewed: Tim Ho Wan , One Dim Sum offers a wider variety of items. Well, after I completed my exchange programme in HK, I said to myself, "So much for dim sum , for now." However, as I looked through the pictures last night to prepare for this review, my stomach kept grumbling. "FEED ME!" :P